BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS LAB 7: INTRODUCTION TO TRANSISTOR AMPLIFERS AND MAKING AN AUDIO AMPLIFIER DEFINITIONS hfe or β – transistor current gain intrinsic to the transistor itself. VE, VB, VC – voltages at the emitter, base, and collector, respectively. BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS - GENERAL USE An electrical signal can be amplified using a device that allows a small current or voltage to control the flow of a much larger current from a dc power source. Transistors are the basic devices providing control of this kind. There are two general types of transistors, bipolar and field-effect. The difference between these two types is that for bipolar devices an input current controls the large current flow through the device, while for field-effect transistors an input voltage provides the current control. In this experiment we will build a two-stage amplifier using two bipolar transistors. In many practical applications it is better to use an op-amp as a source of gain rather than to build an amplifier from discrete transistors. A good understanding of transistor fundamentals is nevertheless essential because op-amps are built from transistors. We will learn about digital circuits in Lab 9, which are also made from transistors. In addition to the importance of transistors as components of op-amps, digital circuits, and an enormous variety of other integrated circuits, single transistors (usually called “discrete” transistors) are used in many applications. They are important as interface devices between integrated circuits and sensors, indicators, and other devices used to communicate with the outside world. High- performance amplifiers operating from DC through microwave frequencies use discrete transistor “front- ends” to achieve the lowest possible noise. Discrete transistors are generally much faster than op-amps. The device we will use this week has a gain-bandwidth product of 300 MHZ. The three terminals of a bipolar transistor are called the emitter, base, and collector (Figure 1). A small current into the base controls a large current flow from the collector to the emitter. The current at the base is typically about 1% of the collector-emitter current. This means that the transistor acts as a current amplifier with a typical current gain (hfe or β) of ~100. Moreover, the large collector current flow is almost independent of the voltage across the transistor from collector to emitter. This makes it possible to obtain a large amplification of voltage by having the collector current flow through a resistor. C B cw wiper cw ccw E E B C wiper Figure 1: Diagram of a NPN bipolar junction transistor (left) and schematic symbol (right). ccw Figure 7.1 Pin-out of 2N3904 and 1 k trimpot 1 CURRENT AMPLIFIER MODEL OF A BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR From the simplest point of view a bipolar transistor is a current amplifier. The current flowing from collector to emitter is equal to the base current multiplied by a factor. An npn transistor like the 2N3904 operates with the collector voltage at least a few tenths of a volt above the emitter, and with a current flowing into the base (There are also pnp transistors with opposite polarity voltages and currents). The base-emitter junction then acts like a forward-biased diode with a 0.6 V drop: VB ≈ VE + 0.6V. Under these conditions, the collector current is proportional to the base current: IC = hfe IB. The constant of proportionality (‘current gain’) is called hfe because it is one of the "h- parameters," a set of numbers that give a complete description of the small-signal properties of a transistor. It is important to keep in mind that hfe is not really a constant. It depends on collector current (see H&H Fig. 2.78), and it varies by 50% or more from device to device. If you want to know the emitter current rather than the collector current you can find it by current conservation: IE = IB + IC = (1/hfe + 1) IC. The difference between IC and IE is almost never important since hfe is normally in the range 100 – 1000. Another way to say this is that the base current is very small compared to the collector and emitter currents. EMITTER FOLLOWER AND COMMON EMITTER AMPLIFIERS We will begin by constructing a common emitter amplifier, which operates on the principle of a current amplifier. A major fault of a single-stage common emitter amplifier is its high output impedance. (Remember why this is a problem? Think voltage divider and Ohm’s Law.) This problem can be addressed by adding an emitter follower as a second stage. In the emitter follower circuit, the control signal is again applied at the base, but the output is taken from the emitter. The emitter voltage precisely follows the base voltage, but more current is available from the emitter. The common-emitter stage and the emitter follower stage are the most common bipolar transistor circuit configurations. 2 Figure 2 Two basic trAnsistor Amplifiers. (A) Emitter Follower And (b) Common emitter. In the emitter-follower stage of Figure 2a, the output (emitter) voltage is always 0.6V (one diode drop) below the input (base) voltage. A small signal of amplitude δV at the input will therefore give a signal δV at the output, i.e. the output just “follows” the input. As we will see later, the advantage of this circuit that it has high input impedance and low output impedance. In the common-emitter stage of Figure 2b, a small signal of amplitude δV at the input will again give a signal δV at the emitter. This will cause a varying current of amplitude δV /RE to flow from the emitter to ground, and hence also through RC. This current generates a Vout of –RC(δV /RE). Thus the common emitter stage has a small-signal voltage gain of: −�! � = �! Note: this Gain is about the change in voltage, which is a bit different than the earlier “Gains” you were working with. BIASING A TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIER Although we usually want to amplify a small ac signal, it is nonetheless very important to set up the proper “quiescent point” or bias voltages, the dc voltages present when the signal is Zero. The first step is to fix the dc voltage of the base with a voltage divider (R1 and R2 in Figure 3). The emitter voltage will then be 0.6 V less than the base voltage. With the emitter voltage known, the current flowing from the emitter is determined by the emitter resistor: IE = VE/RE. For an emitter follower, the collector is usually tied to the positive supply voltage Vps. The only difference between biasing the emitter follower and biasing the common emitter circuit is that the common emitter circuit always has a collector resistor. The collector resistor does not change the base or emitter voltage, but the drop across the collector resistor does determine the collector voltage: VC = Vps – ICRC. If we have capacitors or inductors in parallel (or in place) of the resistors RC and RE, then we would use the ac impedances. 3 Figure 3. Common-emitter Amplifier with biAsing resistors in plAce. OUTPUT RANGE OF THE COMMON EMITTER AMPLIFER (CLIPPING VOLTAGES) Even with proper biasing of the transistor, the output voltage has a range that is less than 0−15V. Let’s determine the maximum and minimum output voltages. Since Vout = 15 V – ICRC, the maximum voltage will occur when IC=0 and the minimum voltage when IC is a maximum. Maximum voltAge: This occurs when the transistor is turned off and no current is flowing. As there is no current flowing through RC, there is no voltage drop across it. Thus Vout = Vmax = 15 V. Minimum VoltAge: This occurs when the transistor is fully on. The maximum current is flowing and there is very little voltage drop across the transistor. The voltage is: Vout = Vmin = 15 V – RC IC (max) IC(max) can be found by considering the voltage drop from the power supply to ground when there is no voltage drop across the transistor: 15V – RC IC − RE IE = 0 . This simple model does not include the ~ 0.1 V drop across the transistor itself even when it is fully on. INPUT AND OUTPUT IMPEDANCES The input impedance is the same for both emitter followers and common emitter stages. The input impedance looking into the base is �!" = �! ℎ!" In this expression RE is whatever impedance is connected to the emitter. For a common emitter stage, RE would usually just be the emitter resistor, but for an emitter follower RE might be the emitter resistor in parallel with the input impedance of the next stage. If you wAnt the input impedAnce of the whole circuit, rather thAn just thAt looking into the bAse, you will hAve to consider rin in pArAllel with the bAse bias resistors. 4 The output impedance of a common emitter stage (Fig. 2b) alone is just equal to the collector resistor RC. �!"# = �! (common emitter stage) The output impedance looking into the emitter of an emitter follower (e.g. Fig. 2a) is given by !! �!"# = (emitter follower stage) !!"!! RB stands for whatever impedance is connected to the base. Usually this impedance is in parallel with whatever impedance is connected to the emitter (RE). EBERS-MOLL MODEL OF A BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR A slightly more complete model of the bipolar transistor is required to understand what happens when the emitter resistor is very small. Instead of using the current amplifier model, one can take the view that the collector current IC is controlled by the base-emitter voltage VBE. For our purposes, the Ebers-Moll model modifies our current amplifier model of the transistor in only one important way.